The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1887-02-17

them is a piece of the cross, come in on
that piece. Tens of thousands of people
are to-day kept out of the Kingdom of God
because they can not believe every thing.
l am talking with man thoughtful
about his soul, who has lately Travelled
through New England and passed the night
at Andover. He says to me: II can not
believe that in this life destiny is irrevo-
cably fixed; l think there will be another
opportunity of repentance after death"
l say to him: ''My brother, what has that
to do with you! Don't you realize that the
man who waits for another chance after
death, when he has a good chance before
death, is stark foola Had not you better
take the plank that is thrown to you now
and head for shore rather than wait for a
plank that may by invisible hands be
thrown to you after you are dead? Do as
you please, but as for myself. with pardon
for all my sins offered me now and all the
joys of time and eternity offered me
now, instantly take them rather than run
the risk of such other chance as wise men
think they can peel off or twist out of
Scripture passage that has for all the
Christian centuries been interpreted an
other way.
You say: ~ do not like Princeton the
ology or Andover theology do not ask
you ON board either of the great men-of-
war, their portfolios filed with great siege
guns of ecclesiastical battle. But do ask
you to take the one plank of the Gospel
that you do believe in and strike out for
the pearl strung beach of Heaven.
Says some other man: 81 would attend
to religion if I was quite sure about the
doctrine Of election and free agency, but
that mixes me all up" Those things used
to bother me, but have no more perplex-
ity about them, for l say to myself: IF /
love Christ and live good, honest useful
life. am elected to be saved; and if l do
not love Christ and live bad life will be
damned, and all the theological seminaries
of the universe can not make it any differ
ent" floundered along while in the sea
of sin and doubt, and it was as rough as
the Mediterranean on the fourteenth night
when they threw the grain overheard; but
l saw there was mercy for a sinner, and
that plank l took, and / have been warm
ing myself by the bright fire on the shore
for three decades
While l am talking to another man about
his soul he tells me: II do not become a
Christian because l do not believe there is
any hell at ALL" All! don't youa Do all
the people, of all beliefs and no belief at all.
of good morals and bad morals, go straight
to happy Heaven? Do the holy and the
debauched have the same destinationss AT
midnight, in a hallway, the owner of a
house and a burglar meet each other, and
they both fire, and botA are wounded, but
the burglar dies in five minutes and the
owner of the house lives week after Will
the burglar be at the gate of Heaven
waiting when the HORSEPOWER comes in
Will the debauche and the libertine 20
right in among the families of Heaven? ]
wonder if Herod is playing on the banks
of the River of Life with the children he
massacred. wonder if Charles Guiteau
and John Wilkes Booth are up there shoot
ing at mark. l do not now controvert it,
although | must say for such miserable
Heaven / have no admiration. But the
Bible does not say: "Believe in perdition
and be saved"
Because all are saved, according to your
theory, that ought not to keep you from
loving and serving Christ. Do not refuse
to come ashore because all the others, &C.
cordlng to your theory, are going to get
ashore. You may have different theory
about chemistry, about astronomy, about
the atmosphere, from that which others
adopt, but you are not therefore hindered
from action. Because your theory of light
is different from others, you do not refuse
to open your eyes; because your theory OF
air is different, you do not refuse to
breathe; because your theory about the
stellar system is different, you do not re-
fuse to acknowledge the north star Why
should the fact that your theological the
cries are different hinder you from acting
upon what you knowa If you have not a
whole ship fashioned in the theological dry
docks to bring you to wharfage, you have
at least plank. ''Some on broken pieces
of the ship"
"But do not believe in REVEALS! |" Then
go to your room, and all alone with your
door locked give your heart to God and
join some church where the thermometer
never gets higher than fifty in the shade
But do not believe in baptismh' Come
in without it and settle that matter after.
ward. But there are so many inconsist-
ent Christians.'' Then come in and show
them by good example how professors
ought to act. ''But don't believe in the
Old Testamenti' Then come in On the
New. "But don't like the Book Of Ro.
mansP' Then come In on Matthew OF
Luke. Refusing to come to Christ, whom
you admit to be the Saviour of the lost, be-
cause you can not admit other things, you
are like man out there in that Mediter-
ranean tempest and tossed in the Melita
breakers, refusing to come ashore until he
can mend the pieces of the broken ship.
l hear him say: 81 won't 90 in
on any of these planks until |
know in what part of the ship they be-
long; when l can get the windlass IN the
right place, and the sails set, and that keel
piece where it belongs and that floor tim
Der right, and these ropes untangled will
go ashore. am an old sailor and know all
about ships for forty years, and as soon as
l can get the vessel afloat in good shape ]
will come inn A man drifting by on a
piece of wood hears him and says: ''You
will drown before you get that ship recon
structed. Better do as am doing know
nothing about ships, and never saw one be-
fore I came on board this, and / can not
swim stroke, but / am going ashore on
this shivered timber.'' The man in the
ofing while trying to mend his ship goes
down. The man who trusted to the plank
Is saved. 0, my brother, let your smashed
up system of theology go to the bottom
while you come in on a splintered spar.
''Some on broken pieces of the ship''
You may get all your difficulties settled
as Garibaldi, the magnetic Italian, got his
gardens made. When the war between